Beyond Hollywood Films

I watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tonight and enjoyed it, so I went to its IMDB page to check out discussions about the film. I know that comments on IMDB tend to be negative. But even so, I was surprised to see entire discussions that said the movie was overrated, poorly made, slow and boring, and that the plot was hard to follow.

People are free to dislike movies of course, but I can't help thinking that these comments are coming from people who primarily watch Hollywood blockbusters (and in doing so, have a narrow view of what makes a good movie).

The complaints I saw weren't so much about the content of the film as they were about the way it was made. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not a typical American-made spy movie. The explanation for this is simple—the movie wasn't made in America. The actors and writers are British. The director is Swedish. They filmed in England, Hungary, and Turkey.

If the film was poorly made, it would not have received nominations and won several awards. What people see in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a kind of film they are not used to seeing, and that puts them off.

Even if I didn't know anything about the movie, I could tell within the first few minutes that this wasn't made in Hollywood. The opening scenes are slow and feel sparse. I had to pay close attention because the characters speak in hushed and sometimes mumbled voices, time passes without clear indications (until you realize what's happening and are prepared for the jumps), and sometimes very little action is happening on camera. These things don't make the film bad. They make it different from what I'm used to seeing (and from what most Americans are used to seeing).

So if I'm used to Hollywood films, why don't I have these complaints about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? I did think it was slow and I had trouble following parts of it, but these things didn't take away from my enjoyment of the film. The reason is, I've seen a bunch of films that are outside of Hollywood's typical style. I've learned to appreciate different kinds of film making.

I used to think that in order to appreciate foreign films, independent films, and older films, people should take a film class or at least read a few books on film criticism. (College film classes are what got me into a wider variety of films.)

But I don't think that anymore. All you really need is an enthusiasm for movies and a willingness to watch different kinds of things. Twenty years ago, people had access to a lot of movies at the local video rental store, but now with Netflix and the internet, we have access to even more. If you're  watching only Hollywood blockbusters, you're missing out on other styles of film and other ways of thinking about movies.

Watch movies made in other countries. Watch films made by young directors, by women, by people who live outside the U.S., by people with tiny budgets. I'll keep doing that too. Then maybe the next time a movie lacks explosions and quotable one-liners, we'll be able to find something else about it that we liked.